Dead Girl Walking
by sharpiedoodler
Summary: Sam is supposed to be dead, but thanks to medicine, she's managed to land herself in a coma instead. Now, in a race against time, she needs to convince her family and friends to let her go before it's too late.
1. Death

Chapter 1

There are three things I know as absolute fact. 1: The best episodes of American Idol are the auditions. 2: No one has actually figured out how many licks it takes to get to the centre of a tootsie pop. And 3: Dead people don't wake up. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I did.

Normally, it takes me a few seconds after waking up to actually kick my brain into gear. But this time, it didn't. I felt the coldness creep into my skin through my wet clothes, the uncomfortable, hard ground press into my back and a pain in my head. Immediately, everything came spilling back.

I had been saving Juliet. Pushed her out of the way and managed to kill myself instead. Or not, since I was pretty sure that dead people don't wake up. I opened my eyes, only to wish I hadn't.

I was under a truck, my head pressing into bottom. I shrieked in fear and tried to push myself away. The painful gravel dug into my fingers as I desperately clawed my way out, while the metal bottom of the truck ripped up the skin on my forehead. I could hear my breath coming out short and fast and my heart beating at the speed of light. Finally, I reached a place where I could turn my head to the side. I looked and saw the edge of the truck, barely a ruler's length away. With newfound desperation, I shifted myself to the side, until I was able to look up and see the sky.

I could feel tears running down my cheeks as I breathed in new air. It was only then that I saw the weird blue and red lights that flashed in the sky. I frowned, confused, and sat up.

There was an ambulance a few meters away, with paramedics standing by a stretcher, running around in a flurry of activity, looking just as desperate as I was a few seconds ago. A group of people look on in rapt horror, their eyes following the paramedic's every move. I recognize Juliet Sykes at first.

She still looks the manic, depressed girl I saved from the road minutes ago. Her wet hair sticks to her t-shirt and I can't tell if she's crying or if it's the rain on her face. It takes me a second to figure out the rest. Lindsay, Elody and Ally. I'm shocked, to be honest. Their makeup is running down their faces, making them look like horrifying clowns. Elody latched onto Ally like a lifeline, while Lindsay is just sitting down, an expression of horror on her face. Her face is red and splotchy and her eyes are fixed on the paramedics. They all look lost.

Lastly, is Kent. He stands apart from the rest of them. He doesn't looked shocked, no, just absent. Like the sun could explode and he wouldn't even blink. I shudder. It's scary, because he's always too full of energy and too positive to be looking like this. It isn't Kent, it can't be. But there he is, standing. I kissed him only minutes ago. He was smiling there was no tomorrow, but now he was just staring into the sky.

Finally, I look over to the stretcher. A paramedic blocks my view, but I wonder who is in it. It must be the driver of the van? I look back at the van, the one that I had been stuck under. It's an ugly green colour and the engine is still on, but there isn't a driver in the seat. I can see the road glistening with a red colour. My blood, I realize. That's my blood. It looks like there's too much of it.

I lift a hand to my head, checking for the head wound that has to be there. Nothing. Not even a scratch. I look down at my hand, certain that I'll see blood on it, but it's spotless. I look back at the ground. There's defiantly blood there. So why isn't there any on me. Then, I remember my hands painfully hurting as they dug into the gravel. They had to be scratched up, didn't they? I check and once again, perfect. I drag a finger across my palm to make sure, but there's nothing except for smooth, unbroken skin.

I sit down on the gravel. My head feels fuzzy and I'm not sure I can stand up. Why am I not injured? Why is there blood under the van, but none of me? Even my clothes are spotless, if a little wet. But then, I hear the paramedics barking orders.

"We need to move quickly!" The first one, a burly man with a thick red beard, barks.

The second, a wiry woman, nods, "Get ready to lift." The burly man who was blocking my sight finally moves. I stare at the person in the stretcher in shock. She's just a girl, with long, dark hair, pale skin and blood smearing her clothes. Huh, I think, she's wearing the same outfit as me. And that's when it all comes together.

It is me. Dead looking and injured, but it's definitely me. I touch myself to make sure I'm still here. I feel solid and I can definitely feel the rain pelting down on me, but there's another me in a stretcher. Before I can figure anything else out, the paramedics lift my body up and head to the ambulance. They're going to drive away, I realize, without me. I don't even think as I sprint towards the ambulance, throwing myself inside as the two paramedics load my body onto the ambulance. One goes towards the driver's seat, while the other stays outside for another minute.

"Hey! Kid," He shouts. Lindsay looks up, tear stained, "Do you know her?"

Lindsay nods, "Her name is Samantha Kingston."  
The paramedic nods, "Okay, I need you to call her parents and tell them that she's going to Civic hospital, okay?" Lindsay nods and the paramedic goes to step into the ambulance, when Kent runs to him.

"I need to go with her. I'm her," he hesitates for a second, "Boyfriend."

The paramedic looks reluctant, but sighs and invites Kent inside anyways. He bounds in and the paramedic closes the door.

As soon as it closes, the driver leaps into action, gunning down the road in breakneck speed. I hardly register Kent talking to the paramedic, as I look down at my body.

I look almost dead. Blood cakes my head and my face, merging with the rain to make something the colour of a not-quite-ripe strawberry. My limbs are a mess as well. My left leg isn't supposed to bend the way it is and I'm fairly sure all my ribs managed to break. My own body makes me want to throw up.

I spend the drive watching the paramedic work on me. He inserts various cords and I.V.s into my skin and every once in a while barks numbers at the driver. They make no sense to me, but considering the speed the driver is at, I'm pretty sure they aren't good. Kent, amazing, kissable Kent, I still staring at me blankly. I'm sure this is weird for him — the girl who just kissed him is now half dead in an ambulance, but I'm fairly sure this is weirder for me.

Dead people don't wake up. Then again, before February 12th, I was pretty sure that people didn't keep reliving their day over and over again. But I had. I relived February 12th to save Juliet. Which I did. I was successful, so why was I still here?

* * *

Okay, new story. I just finished Before I Fall and loved it, especially the ending. Endings often feel out of place, but for Before I Fall, it felt perfect.


	2. Marigold

Chapter 2

When Izzy was younger, she loved playing doctor. For years, I was her patient. All I really had to do was lie down and fake a few sneezes and coughs while Izzy rushed around me with a plastic stethoscope. She always used to put it on my right side and I would always have to move it to the left, so that it covered my real heart. She used to put up such a fit about it that I gave up and let her put a stethoscope over my lung. Eventually, she realized that a) she didn't know her lefts and rights and b) that the heart was on the left side of the chest, but she still insisted that she was right the whole time. It drove me crazy back then, but now I really wanted to be back on the couch with Izzy messing around with a stethoscope, instead of in an ambulance with a trained professional who was making sure his defibrillator was ready to work at Moments notice.

Kent was beside me. Every once in a while he'd reach out, like he wanted to hold my hand, before he yanked it back. I didn't blame him for not touching me. I looked like a zombie extra from The Walking Dead, except with real blood and wires connecting me to at least three different machines. I slid next to him, but he didn't notice. I stroked his arm to reassure him that I was alright, even though I clearly wasn't. Kent didn't even react. I had to fight the feeling of hurt creeping through me. It was stupid, I wasn't really stroking his arm. Real me was in the middle of dying. Weird ghost me wasn't really there. I was going to die tonight anyways. All this was was a couple of extra hours until even the best technology could ensure my body stayed alive.

When the ambulance pulled into the hospital, I stayed with Kent. I wanted to follow my body, unconscious and close to death, but I refrained. I didn't have much time left before my body gave out for good, instead of barely stringing me along like it was doing now. My parents would be here soon too, I wanted to see them one last time.

Kent and I had only been there for twenty minutes before my family appeared. They looked frazzled and panicked, clearly scared and confused. I know Lindsay had been told to call them, but just what exactly had she said? Izzy was wearing her pyjama bottoms with a t-shirt I'm sure she barely had time to pull on. Mom's hair was all over the place and she wore a mismatched top and pants. If I had been there, I would have teased her about how getting old had changed her fashion sense, but she looked so scared that I was scared as well. Dad, finally, looked the most put together of them all. He had managed to tame his hair, somehow and threw on an outfit that looked at least half decent.

Kent recognized them and stood up, "You're Sam's Mom and Dad, right?"

Dad jerked his head in Kent's direction. The moment he spoke, I realized that if anything, he was worse off than Mom and Izzy, "Yes, what happened?" his voice cracked halfway through his sentence.

Kent hesitated, just how do you tell a panicking family how their daughter was dying? "A girl, um, Juliet, she ran onto the road. Sam pushed her away, but she got hit."

Mom gasped, "Hit?

Kent nodded, "A van. It was big. Lindsay called the ambulance, I think."

"Have the doctors said anything yet?"

I leaned in, had they said anything I hadn't heard?

Kent shook his head, "It was really fast. The paramedics were talking like it was bad and the second they got to the hospital, they wheeled her over there," he pointed to two doors marked 'surgery'.

"What happened to Sam?" Izzy piped up. She looked so confused, standing next to Dad, still half asleep.

Mom crouched down to her level, "Sam was in a car accident. She was hurt and so she was brought to the hospital. Wasn't your friend Alice hit by a car a year ago?"

Izzy nodded, "She broke her arm. Did Izzy break her arm too?"

Mom stroked Izzy's hair, "We don't know yet. The doctors are working really hard to help her, okay?"

"She's okay though, right?" Izzy asked. I crouched next to Mom. Izzy looked scared and she had good reason to be. Mom and Dad looked as scared as her, but they were trying to hide it.

Parents master wearing a mask around their children. One of the first times I had seen my parents without their's on was when I was sneaking downstairs after my bedtime to steal a cookie. Mom had tears steaming down her face and Dad was covering his face with his hands. I still don't know what scared them so much, probably Grandma's illness or something to do with the mortgage, but the image of my parent's utter despair stayed etched in my mind to this day.

"Izzy," Dad reached into his pocket and grabbed twenty dollars, "Why don't you buy some flowers we can give to Sam when she wakes up? Something that will make her smile."

Izzy nodded eagerly and grabbed the twenty. She scrambled away to the gift shop. Mom and Dad sat beside Kent, who was looking incredibly awkward. Then, I saw the mask vanish. Mom's optimism faded and Dad's bravery disappeared. Dad grabbed Mom's hand and held it tight.

One part of me knew I should be grateful. Not many people get to see their family again after they die. I got to see them for five more days and now I had a few extra hours before my body died, but a bigger part of me was bitter. This wasn't supposed to be part of the deal. I was meant to die and move on, not have to watch my boyfriend, sister and parents grapple with false hope, stuck in limbo until a doctor tells them that I was going to die. Maybe it was a little bit selfish, to settle all my affairs, accept my death and then die without having to watch my family grieve for me, but hadn't I already been selfless enough? I'd given up my life, wasn't I entitled to a little selfishness?

I wanted to scream at that point. I didn't know why I was still here or what I was supposed to do. All that was left for me to do was watch my family suffer, all the while I couldn't do a single thing about it. I stormed away from my family. Maybe if I went into the surgery and pulled out the oxygen I would die. Full of anger, I marched right to the surgery doors, before they opened in my face.

A doctor strode out. He glanced around the waiting room. It seemed like everyone leaned forward, desperate for it to be their family he was giving the news about. "Family of Samantha Kingston?"

I gasped. My father stood up, "Here." The doctor nodded and approached them. Izzy walked out of the gift shop, proudly holding a bouquet of marigolds. She got to Mom and Dad just as the doctor did.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Caldmen. Your daughter, Samantha is in my care right now."

Dad gave him a tense smile, "How is she?"

Dr. Caldmen frowned, "Do you want to do this in front of your daughter?"

Izzy straightened up, "I want to know!"

Mom sighed, "She'll find out anyways." She pursed her lips together and the doctor nodded.

"Samantha suffered grave injuries to her head, but she managed to pull through the surgery. I won't lie, her odds aren't good, especially considering she's in a coma."

Mom cut in, "A coma?"

The doctor nodded, "She has suffered tremendous brain damage. Mrs Kingston, there is a good chance that Samantha won't wake up."And just like that, I felt like I couldn't breath anymore. Brain damage was bad enough, but never waking up? That was the stuff of nightmares. Would I be stuck like this, invisible, forever? "And," The doctor continued, "There isn't a guarantee she will stay in a coma for very long. There's a high probability of her dying."

"But a coma, people in comas don't die, do they? They just sleep," Dad said, quietly.

The doctor shrugged, "Sometimes the body has gone through too much and it decides to just shut down. Some coma patients survive for decades, it's true, but there isn't a guarantee.

Mom and Dad stared at the doctor uncomprehendingly.

"Doctor, can we talk about this somewhere else?" Dad asked. Mom nodded and the doctor agreed, looking relieved that he wouldn't have to stare at Izzy anymore.

"Izzy," Mom said, "I need you to stay here with," She stared at Kent, who straightened up at her glance.

"Kent," He introduced himself, "I'm Sam's boyfriend."  
Mom looked confused for a minute, probably trying to figure out why she had never heard of Kent before, "Can you look after Izzy for a few minutes?"

Kent nodded, "Sure. Hi Izzy."

Izzy stared at him warily, "Mom, I want to go with you."

Mom shook her head, "I need you to stay with Kent, okay sweetie? Your Dad and I will be out in a minute, can you do that?"

Reluctantly, Izzy nodded. Kent smiled at her. Mom and Dad took after the doctor and I was still standing by the surgery doors, feeling numb.

Maybe I wasn't here for a reason. Maybe the universe just glitched. Was I stuck here forever? I couldn't save Juliet this time to escape. Would I have to wait until my body decides to just shut down? Or would I stay awake while the years passed by, getting old and grey, while my family and friends visit me a few times every year. I sunk to the floor. Had I died just to stay alive, invisible and unable to interact?

* * *

So, just for clarification: Sam can touch things, but she can't actually interact with them. She can touch a door knob but can't actually turn it.

Alright, I hope everyone enjoyed. I'm going to watch the movie tonight and I'm really excited for it. I felt the book had a lot of heart in it and I hope the movie can live up to it.

Also, I don't have a consistent update schedule. I've tried that in the past and I tend to screw up after upload three or four. I'll try to update as much as possible, but all this isn't my first priority. I love writing, but it has to take a back seat to some things in life. Thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed.

Oh, also if you spot any spelling mistakes or anything like that, please tell me so I can fix it up.

Last thing, I'm still learning how to write. I've gotten better in the last few years, but I still appreciate when people tell me when there's something I can improve on, whether it's confusing to read, hard to follow or the flow just doesn't quite work. I appreciate everything.

Thanks!


	3. Stumble

Chapter 3

Life often hits you hard, so hard you go stumbling onto the ground. Maybe its the realization that your mother is an alcoholic, or being fired from your dream job, but whatever it is, you remember the exact moment you heard it. Some people become numb for a few minutes, others lash out and another group, like me, just deny it and try to squish it to the back of our minds. Most people, luckily, only go through this once in a lifetime. I've gone through it twice in twenty four hours. First being hit by the truck and now, finding out I'd likely never wake up.

So, when the doctor left with my parents, I sat on the couch beside Kent and Izzy. Izzy was fiddling around with her hair, while Kent watched her. She was still holding the marigolds she bought from the hospital shop. I glanced at Kent. The blank look in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by a certain wariness and fear. There was no way he'd imagined his day ending up like this. It felt like something had stomped on our happy ending, killing it instantly.

After a few minutes, I couldn't stand it anymore. Sitting there while neither of them acknowledged me. I needed to do something other than see my boyfriend and little sister wondering if I would die. The doctor had said I was out of surgery, hadn't he? I wanted to find my body.

My mind made up, I stood up. I glanced at Izzy, who was playing with the marigolds, looking sad and miserable. Kent was staring at the wall.

Neither of them were looking at me, but I still wanted to say something. Pretend they were just ignoring me instead of being actually incapable of seeing me, "I'm going to find myself. So, goodbye," Still no reaction, not that I was surprised. I turned to Kent, "Make sure Izzy isn't too sad. I want her to be happy," then I walked to the directory.

Coma patients, it read, floor two, room seven. I glanced back one more time at Kent and Izzy, who were now joking around with each other, before walking down the corridor, trying to find the staircase.

The hallway in the second floor was, like the rest of the hospital, painted a boring light blue and reeked of a sterile scent. The coma ward was right in front of me. While the rest of the hospital was bustling with activity, doctors running around, frantic families trying to find their relative and nurses grabbing medications and sheets to deliver them to patients, the coma ward was dead. Six beds were lined up, three on each side, a person in each bed, lying still. The only life came from the machines beeping regularly. It was terrifying.

I made my way into the room, resisting the urge to tiptoe as I reminded myself that these people were in a coma and being woken up by noise would actually be the best thing that could happen to them. Then again, no one was able to actually hear me. For a second, I wondered if any of the coma patients were like me, walking around the hospital, unsure of what was happening, but I beat the thought out of my mind. It was too creepy.

I spotted my own bed quickly. It was at the back of the room to the left. A lone window was above my bed, casting light on my face. I barely recognized myself. My face was black and blue, with multiple cuts on my cheeks. It was swollen and half covered in bandages. It was disgusting. I was glad the rest of my body was under blankets.

I glanced at the bed beside mine. A middle aged redheaded woman, whose name was, according to the helpful chart on the table, Louise. Apart from a long scar stretching from her hairline to her eyebrow, she looked flawless. No cuts, no bruises, just skin. How long had she been in here? Had she been a teenager like me when she was first admitted and grew old? Was that what was going to happen to me? Doctor Caldmen's words floated back to me. If I even survived that long, at least.

Footsteps echoed through the room as people came in. I turned, expecting a nurse or maybe a doctor, but instead it was my parents. Seeing my mother with tear tracks and my father with tear tracks made me almost as uncomfortable as seeing my own body. It's unnatural to see parents when they aren't being strong.

The two of them get to my bed. My mother gasps when she sees me and my father looks as horrified as I feel. I wonder what Dr. Caldmen had told them to make them so scared? Mom bended down to stoke my hair. She hasn't done that to me since I was eleven and had the worst flu of my entire life.

Dad stared at me in disbelief, "Geez, she looks…" he trails off, but I know what he wants to say. She looks dead already. It stings, but I can't blame him. Even I think I look dead.

Mom shook her head, "No, no, no. Remember what the doctor said? She might be able to hear us." Dad nodded and took a deep breath. Suddenly, both of them were wearing masks again, hiding how devastated they were. It was reassuring.

"Hey Sam. You're going to be fine, you know that right?" Dad tells me. It looks like he's trying to convince himself.

"Yeah. This time next week you'll be complaining about waking up at six thirty for school," Mom adds in, cracking a small smile. I wince. Or I'll still be in the coma ward. Maybe a casket if I'm really unlucky. Mom drops her smile when I becomes clear I won't wake up or laugh at it. She backs away from me, as if understanding what a coma means for the first time. I can see how freaked out and scared she is.

"Hey, why don't you bring Izzy up here. She'll be happy to see Sam," Dad tells her.

Mom nods, glad for an opportunity to leave. I don't blame her. It must be horrifying to see your own daughter on the brink of death. She leaves the coma ward after shooting one last smile at my body.

Dad leans in closer to me, like he's about to tell me a secret. "Sam, I know this is hard. And you don't deserve what happened to you. You're only a teenager." He's right. I'm not even finished high school yet, but here I am, stuck in a coma after a week repeating the day I died. What did I do to deserve this? Why wasn't I allowed to just be a normal teenager, like I had been before February twelfth. "But," he continued, "You need to fight. For me, your Mom and Izzy." Dad closes his eyes for a second and bites his lip, "The doctor. He said we should consider shutting down the life support, look into being an organ donor, but we'll never do that Sam. Not while there's a chance you'll wake up, understand? Even if it takes a dozen years, half a century even, we'll always be here, ready and waiting for you to open your eyes again, okay? And that's why we need you to fight. To prove the doctors wrong, because you need to graduate. Marry, have kids. Get a job you love and then retire. I don't know what your mother and Izzy will do if you die. And that's why you can't, because I don't knowhow we'll survive without you. You need to see Izzy live a good life, make sure your mother and I get the best retirement home. I believe in you, Sam. I know you'll make it."

Suddenly, life had hit me so hard I stumbled for the third time in twenty four hours. It felt like I couldn't breath, like my lungs refused to open up and my heart refused to beat. Take me off life support? That would mean I'd die. A few hours ago, I was waiting for death to take me, but now I wasn't so sure. How could I force my family to go through the pain of burying me? Spend every February twelfth and thirteenth in mourning, remembering me. I couldn't do that to them. I'll stay alive, even if I have to wonder a hospital for the rest of my life to make sure they won't have to go through any more pain.

* * *

Alright, so chapter three finished. Hope you all had a nice read.

Anyways, so turns out Before I Fall the movie doesn't actually come out in my country, which makes me pretty annoyed. Ugh. So I'm stuck waiting for it to come out on dvd or something. Yay.


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